** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

[Mike_Hillis]

Deleted.

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, Mike_Hillis said:

  I guess this is where I'll drop off.  Thanks for taking me along this far.  

Mike

Thanks for reading. 

[GhostMiner]

   May 10   1950

 

   We advanced another 4 ft north and are against very heavy ground. The work is slow and requires timber support. Not much in gold values to speak of at this point. I have talked with the geologist and he tells me we are on the correct course of action here. The gold may be dispersed in widely scattered deposits from what I understand. Drifting and crosscutting the channel is costing about $29 /ft and the long hole drilling another $1.05/ft. When I am able to show some good values there will be participation by several small investors in the project. The investment has to be justified. We are now using air lines of 3 inch in size as well as vent lines of 10 inch in size.   

   TO BE ANNOUNCED ...............

[GhostMiner]

   May 12   2002     Part Three

 

   We panned the samples and there were some fines but nothing much to speak of. Jim, Vern, and I went back up on the hill and decided to open up a pretty good hole and attempt to get some depth. After an hour and a half of hard digging we were down about six feet and the diameter of the hole was about five feet across. We took some buckets of the gravel down to the tub and started panning again. This time we saw some fines but also a bit of coarse gold and three pickers. We looked at Jacob who was still holding his pan and looking at the contents. He gave us a wink and said we should work it. 

   We went to work cutting a flat area into the hill where we could set the tom. This would make it possible to shovel directly into the grizzly instead of carrying buckets down the hill. We also had to cut a shallow ditch for tailings runoff down to the tailings pond. Then we re-routed the water line across the side of the mountain so it wouldn’t have to try to push water uphill. By the time we had finished it was well after 5:00 PM. We were all bushed and decided to call it a day and get some food in us and a good night's rest so we would be in shape to mine in the morning. 

   Tonight we had ourselves a treat. Jacob made up some hot water corn bread using his brother's recipe. He used bacon grease in the meal as well as the pan. We had it with cans of his favorite stew heated up over an open fire. I have never eaten anything up in the mountains that tasted so good. We all joined Jacob in a toast of Bushmills to his brother Jed. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ..................

[GhostMiner]

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 10   1950

 

   We advanced another 4 ft north and are against very heavy ground. The work is slow and requires timber support. Not much in gold values to speak of at this point. I have talked with the geologist and he tells me we are on the correct course of action here. The gold may be dispersed in widely scattered deposits from what I understand. Drifting and crosscutting the channel is costing about $29 /ft and the long hole drilling another $1.05/ft. When I am able to show some good values there will be participation by several small investors in the project. The investment has to be justified. We are now using air lines of 3 inch in size as well as vent lines of 10 inch in size.   

   TO BE ANNOUNCED ...............

   So to my understanding, these guys are spending a lot of money chasing a dream. Man, that sounds familiar. 

[GhostMiner]

   May 15   1950

 

    Seeing as we are still not sure of any definite investors coming into the project I have applied to borrow the sum of $10,000 from the Sacramento Deposit Bank.

   Previous exploration now seems to conclude that the body of the blue Neocene gravels being sought runs along the fault and is contained in this location. At great cost, I have brought in equipment to conduct some churn drill exploration in the northerly ground. I was able to secure a second mortgage on my house for immediate funds which are needed. I am very confident of the success of the drill reports. We continue drifting along the 56 ft area and have made slow progress.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

   May 15   1950

 

    Seeing as we are still not sure of any definite investors coming into the project I have applied to borrow the sum of $10,000 from the Sacramento Deposit Bank.

   Previous exploration now seems to conclude that the body of the blue Neocene gravels being sought runs along the fault and is contained in this location. At great cost, I have brought in equipment to conduct some churn drill exploration in the northerly ground. I was able to secure a second mortgage on my house for immediate funds which are needed. I am very confident of the success of the drill reports. We continue drifting along the 56 ft area and have made slow progress.   

   TO BE CONTINUED ............

   This just shows us all how risky and far out on the curve someone can get when chasing big gold. The drilling seems like a good idea. Too bad he had to put his house on the line to do it. The results are in the log and I will get them up a bit later today. You can't help but root for these guys. 

[Mike Furness]

19 hours ago, Mike_Hillis said:

  I guess this is where I'll drop off.  Thanks for taking me along this far.  

Mike

Just a suggestion ... maybe come back once a week and check in. I have a feeling some good stuff is about to happen. I know it is a little slow in the story right now but gold mining can be that way too. All I'm saying is ... Don't be shy about coming back for a check in!

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, Mike Furness said:

Just a suggestion ... maybe come back once a week and check in. I have a feeling some good stuff is about to happen. I know it is a little slow in the story right now but gold mining can be that way too. All I'm saying is ... Don't be shy about coming back for a check in!

   Yes, if you were looking for Jacob and my crew to get into gunfights & bar room brawls when I was working out there in 2002 you're definitely in the wrong place LOL. My wife would have skinned me alive LOL. I could just imagine when I was writing this jornal back in 2002 and went into town to call the wife and give her an update. She'd ask me how we were doing & were we getting much gold. Then I'd have to tell her I got into a shootout and a bar fight and am sitting in jail. Not exactly what she would want to hear LOL. YIKES!!

[GhostMiner]

   May 13   2002

 

   We got up to our new dig site bright and early. It was still below 50 degrees when we started digging at 8:00 AM. We were all anxious to see what this new spot would provide us in the way of gold. We cut some steps into the side of the hill to make going up and down a little easier, especially for Jacob who would never ask us to do something like that for him. He took several samples in the morning and hollered out to us from down below. He said he was seeing gold. 

   We broke for lunch at 1:00 PM. We were all in a good mood, especially since there was some gold being found again. When we got back to work we went right at it and I was in a real shoveling mood. We had seen some gold in the top of the sluice box matting and we were on fire.

   By 6:00 PM we were beyond tired. We had picked and shoveled our way to eighteen yards of gravel sent through the tom. Vern shut down the pump and we pulled the mats. We had one hell of a hole going into the side of the mountain now. We were going nearly straight down. We cut a walkout ramp at an angle so we could walk the gold out and dump it in the sluice. We had to start using buckets to do it. 

   When we got back to camp we decided to do the cleanup. We were just to darn curious about what we had in the mats. We finished up just after dark and Jacob set the gold down in front of us. He had a smile on his face so I knew it was good. There was 1.25 ounces. I saw fine gold but lots of coarse as well as a bunch of pickers. I can’t wait to get to town and phone my wife. We are back in business. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ................